ICTU agrees to begin partnership agreement talks
Talks on a new national partnership agreement will formally begin tomorrow after the umbrella body of trade unions agreed to enter the negotiations.
Ending months of speculation, David Begg from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said the unions would be entering talks but the problems affecting the health service would be highlighted as a major priority.
After the decision was taken at the special meeting of ICTU’s executive council, Mr Begg said the overarching goal of the new talks would be to ensure the country’s many social deficits were addressed.
Negotiations between unions, employers and the Government over replacing the Sustaining Progress agreement are already running behind schedule.
Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin will be attending the plenary session of the new talks as they formally commence in Dublin Castle tomorrow.
Congress is understood to be seeking to extend the life span of agreements with a six-year deal to allow policy goals to be achieved.
The state’s biggest trade union, Siptu, yesterday agreed to enter the arena in a bid to agree a deal to replace the current Sustaining Progress agreement.
In a two-hour special meeting of delegates Siptu said any potential talks would take place as part of a two-stranded process to ensure integral issues raised by delegates such as outsourcing of work and the exploitation of workers were addressed.
Jack O’Connor, Siptu’s president, said he would be scrupulous about bringing back any proposals to delegates before any finalagreements were made.
Last October, Siptu suspended their work on the talks process to deal with resolving the dispute with Irish Ferries.
Following controversies at the ferry company, which proposed outsourcing more than 500 jobs, and the Gama construction scandal, where Turkish builders were underpaid, unions have been demanding increased protection for both Irish and foreign workers.
Congress today agreed the protection of decent standards of employment and proper enforcement of regulations were high on the agenda for the talks progress.
Mr O’Connor, Siptu’s president, said the talks would not move past the first strand of discussions unless the issues of exploitation were addressed.
“The reality of it is we very specifically took a position which was designed to ensure the issues around displacement and exploitation received the degree of priority in those talks, if they took place, that they deserved. That wouldn’t have been the case last October,” he said.
Mr O’Connor said there were undoubtedly very difficult negotiations ahead.
The community platform section of the partnership talks have warned any new national partnership agreement should tackle the high levels of poverty, inequality and social exclusion in society.
The Mandate Union, which represents over 43,000 workers in retail, bar and administrative trades, said it had expressed its concern to ICTU over over the ability of talks to deliver for lower paid workers.
The union said new research had shown retail workers’ incomes were falling significantly behind other sectors. In the ten years between 1995 and 2004, the incomes of retail workers increased by 126% while profits rose by 338%.
Following ICTU’s decision to enter talks, John Douglas, general secretary of Mandate Union, said: “Mandate has very grave doubts as to whether the social partnership process, with its current restrictive agenda and parameters can truly address the income needs of those on middle and lower incomes.”
He added: “However, we wish our colleagues in Congress well in their endeavours.”
